It looks like long-negotiated legislation in Congress designed to alleviate California’s drought is dead for the year. And the state’s Republican delegation is upset about it. Nevada County’s congressional representative, Doug LaMalfa, says the hope was the bills could be slipped into a much larger, must-pass, federal spending package needed to keep the government open. He says that would enable the state to start collecting more water right away…

click to listen to Congressman LaMalfa

LaMalfa says the Senate version would also authorize partial funding for new water storage projects and speed up project studies, including for Sites Reservoir in Colusa County…

click to listen to Congressman LaMalfa

LaMalfa, and other Republicans, are blaming the collapse of negotiations on California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. He says it appears that Democrats have caved in to pressure from environmentalists to save more water for the fish population than is necessary.